Phil Sykes
Phil started playing golf at the age of 13 and after numerous junior tournaments was given the chance to join the county set up. The same day as he was offered his first professional position!
Choosing the professional route he became assistant professional at Bedale Golf Club in North Yorkshire. Here he learnt the key skills to become an all round golf professional. After 3 very enjoyable years at Royal Guernsey Golf Club he then moved abroad to Norway to work in the “golf boom” that was being experienced by the country. During this spell Phil developed his coaching skills,knowledge of golf equipment and corporate golf provision. He became senior coach of his organisation in Oslo and was a member of the WILSON golf equipment advisory staff.
After a time as Head Professional engaging with the team to establish La Grande Mare Golf Club and then a return to Norway to manage corporate events and oversee the coaching staff he secured the post of Club Professional at one of the UK’s premier golf course’s, Knole Park Golf Club in Kent.
Phil’s brief here was to bring the club into the “modern day era”. He refurbished the golf shop, re financed and re stocked it and introduced many new and modern day retail and coaching ideas to the club such as custom fitting, video coaching, golf road shows,house calls and equipment events. He also reinvented the junior structure and saw this side of the membership grow from 30 or so to over 90, plus another 250 children participating in his coaching programmes. On leaving Knole the club was in a very healthy state with a membership of 800 strong. Following 8 years there Phil returned to his “adopted” home of Guernsey to establish the highly successful Sykes Golf Academy. The natural progression from this and the combined skills of his fellow team mates then lead to the birth of the Guernsey Golf School.
Phil is a fully qualified Advanced Member (AA) of the PGA. Has level 3 coaching and is an NLP Practitioner. He has had a number of trainee professionals successfully complete their degree studies under his guidance. Phil has been a qualified member of the Professional Golfers Association for some 22 years during which time he has been a Head Professional and Head Coach for 19 of those years and has run his own coaching and retail businesses.
Contact Phil direct at: phil@lgmgolf.com